Of Humans and Robots
by unicorn-skydancer08
Summary: The story of how Melly met up with Sari, how she first encountered the Autobots as well as the Decepticons, and how she ultimately came to fall in love with Blurr.
1. Chapter 1

**OF HUMANS AND ROBOTS  
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_Quite a few people have been asking me about Melly, what she's like and where she came from, and how she first came to meet Blurr, as well as the rest of the Transformers gang. This gave me a good excuse to write another TFA story, and another one with chapters at that. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the TFA universe, but I'm still an amateur, so again, go easy on me._

_This first chapter explains how Melly and Sari first met. It takes place in the first episode, "Transform and Roll Out".  
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**Characters (with exceptions) © Hasbro and Entertainment Rights**

**Story © unicorn-skydancer08**

_**All rights reserved. **_

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**Chapter 1**

"Who's that girl, Dad? The one with the strange glasses and the funny hair?"

Looking toward the girl his young daughter was referring to, Isaac Sumdac said, "Ah, that's Melly Manchester. She's my newest employee. She joined our team only last summer."

Sari knitted her brows. "That's weird," the small, scrawny, skeptical seven-year-old said, "I never even knew she was here, let alone worked here. How old is she?" Melly Manchester looked to be only about a head or so taller than she was; the girl certainly appeared young, undoubtedly the youngest of all of Mr. Sumdac's human resources—at least that Sari had seen.

"If I remember her records correctly, about twenty-two, perhaps twenty-three."

Sari was surprised; most people didn't get into Sumdac Systems until they were thirty-five, at bare minimum. "I thought your business had an age policy, Dad."

If Melly could hear what was being said, she made no sign of it, for her eyes were focused on her digital notepad, on which she was diligently jotting notes.

Mr. Sumdac smiled, somewhat lopsidedly. "That is true," he admitted. "But with Miss Manchester here, I decided to make an exception. As far as I'm concerned, she meets all the qualifications. She has an outstanding breadth of knowledge in the field of science and technology, she graduated with top marks from a first-rate college, and she has excellent references."

"And she's only twenty-three?" Sari shook her head in disbelief. "Talk about an overachiever!"

"Don't be rude, Sari," her father cautioned. "I felt Miss Manchester deserved a chance, at the very least. And she has proven to be a very bright young woman, and a hard worker, well worth her salt. Why, she's put in more time and effort within the last three months alone than most of my remaining staff has within the last three years."

_She must not get out much in the real world, then, _Sari thought, but resisted the temptation to say the words out loud.

Sumdac Systems, established at Sumdac Tower in Detroit, Michigan, was the backbone of the city's economy, as well as the overall world's primary manufacturer of automatons—living robots whose functions ranged from law enforcement to entertainment to janitorial labor. The company was the leading dominator of the robotic market. Of course, it wasn't called Sumdac Systems for nothing; Mr. Sumdac was the founder and head of it all. His daughter Sari had spent essentially her whole life surrounded by robots; she was about as familiar with them as she was with the back of her hand. With regular people, on the other hand, she didn't get along nearly as well. It wasn't that she had anything against humans.

Due to being a shut-in most of her life, she simply didn't know how to properly interact with them.

While her attitude toward Melly Manchester would have appeared snobbish, even downright rude, that was the way she was with just about everybody else.

And she was right about one thing: Melly didn't get out much. Melly Manchester was the sort of person who kept to herself most of the time. She just went quietly about her own business, hardly speaking to anyone else, and avoiding direct eye contact. For all her credibility, for all her intelligence and skills, the young woman had virtually no social life.

Though Melly acted as though she didn't care, the truth was, she _did _care. She wished she had someone to talk to, to listen to her, to truly understand her.

For as long as she could remember, she had always been an outsider.

She had been an amazing student in school, skipping two grades and starting college when she was sixteen, and nearly every teacher in the field of education raved about her. But her classmates were a different story. Even now, Melly clearly remembered the unmerciful abuse she'd endured. She was called just about every name in the book, she was left entirely alone during lunch and gym, the girls excluded her from their games and gossip, and no boy that she knew of wanted to date someone who knew more about cars and computers than they did.

She did have one or two friends here and there, but one by one, they all ended up dropping her like a hot potato.

Even here at Sumdac Systems, Melly didn't feel like she really fit in. It felt awkward working in a place where almost everyone was nearly twice her age. At least there was plenty for her to do, and she was surrounded constantly by machinery—something for which she had always harbored a strong passion. She knew essentially everything there was to know about cars and machines. She'd grown up around a car shop, and her father, who raised her and her older brother single-handedly, and who was a genius mechanic, taught her everything he knew.

Melly didn't know why, but somehow she had always favored cars over girly stuff. She preferred oil-spattered denim jeans to dresses, and the smell of fresh rubber and gasoline to flowers and perfume. Computers were another forte of hers. Once, she had even put together a computer of her very own, with her own two hands, entirely from scratch.

So, this job with Mr. Sumdac was nothing short of a golden opportunity for her.

Even so, Melly longed for a friend, somebody who actually cared about her. More than that, she wanted somebody who loved her, just the way she was.


	2. Chapter 2

**OF HUMANS AND ROBOTS  
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_Welcome back, guys! I know that some of you were pretty antsy for me to update this, and I'm most sincerely sorry for the wait. This chapter's a bit of a shortie, but at least it's something. Like the previous chapter, this takes place in the first episode of the show; this is just before Sari barges in on her father while he's giving the kids the tour of the workplace. I hope you all like!  
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**Characters (with exceptions) © Hasbro and Entertainment Rights**

**Story © unicorn-skydancer08**

_**All rights reserved. **_

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**Chapter 2**

"Sparkplug! Give that back!" Sari shouted as she chased after her robotic puppy. Sparkplug, who had gotten hold of Sari's security key—again—only responded with an insolent yip, and ran even faster. Sari gritted her teeth and forced herself to run faster as well. Much as she loved and adored Sparkplug, that little mechanical mutt could be such a nuisance.

Presently, Sparkplug swerved around a corner and disappeared.

There were several shouts of surprise, followed by a series of bangs and crashes. When Sari rounded the corner herself, Sparkplug was nowhere to be seen, but a few people on her father's staff, along with two or three other robots, were sprawled on the floor. A good number of papers that the humans had been holding were scattered everywhere, and something that was made of glass lay in broken fragments. Needless to say, the people didn't look too happy. Sari called out several apologies to them as she hurried past, while inwardly she was stewing.

When she got her hands on that four-footed pest…

By the time Sari at last caught up with Sparkplug, she was surprised to see that Melly Manchester was already with him. Sparkplug was seated quite quietly on his haunches, and Melly was crouched down next to him. She was wearing her white lab coat, as always, and her strawberry-blonde hair was pulled back into its usual ponytail.

"Hello," Melly greeted Sari, when she saw her.

"Hi," said Sari, somewhat awkwardly. It had been three days since she last saw Melly, and this marked the first time the two girls had ever spoken to each other, face-to-face.

"Does this little ball of energy belong to you?"

"Yeah…I'm sorry to say."

"He's cute," Melly said, giving Sparkplug a light pat on the head, causing the little dog to wriggle all over with pleasure. "I wish I had a robotic dog to call my own."

"Don't let Sparkplug's so-called 'cuteness' fool you," said Sari darkly. "He can be a major pain in the butt."

A half-smile played on Melly's lips. "At least you won't have a problem with fleas," she said, "and he won't shed hair or piddle all over the place."

Then, holding up Sari's key, which she had somehow managed to retrieve from Sparkplug, she added, "I believe this is yours, as well."

"Yeah," said Sari, immediately reaching out and taking the key back, "thanks a lot."

"No problem," said Melly. "You must be Sari."

Sari looked at her incredulously. "How did you know my name?"

"I've seen you with your dad a few times, and there's been talk about you here and there."

"Well, there's no need to ask who _you _are. You're Melly Manchester."

The words came out ruder than Sari intended, and the little girl quickly flushed with embarrassment, but Melly just smiled ruefully and answered, "Guilty as charged."

"What are you doing here?" Sari asked, at length. "I mean, why did you choose to work here, of all places?"

"It's a well-paying job," said Melly, as she straightened up. "At any rate, it puts bread on the table. And I always had a thing for machines, and this place just crawls with them."

"Why?" questioned Sari. "Why do you like machines so much?"

Melly shrugged. "Some girls like horses. Others prefer lipstick, finger polish, and nylons. Me, myself, I'm partial to mechanical stuff. I don't know why, but my dad's an auto mechanic, and I spent virtually my whole life in a car shop that was right next to my house. I find it all extremely fascinating, with cars and computers and such."

She paused briefly, before continuing, "And what about you? You're surrounded by machines every day, yourself."

Now it was Sari's turn to shrug. "I dunno," she said. "I just don't see what the big deal is about them."

"Maybe it's because you're so used to them that they become second nature to you."

"I guess you could say that."

A long moment of silence followed this little conversation.

Then Melly cleared her throat, and said, "Well, I guess I should get back to work, now. They don't pay me to just stand around and chat, you know."

"Yeah," Sari muttered, averting her gaze, "I'd better get going myself."

"Take care, Sari. See you, Sparkplug."

With that, Melly turned on her heel and quietly walked away, with her ponytail swaying to and fro, like a pendulum. It dawned on Sari that this was the first time she'd had a proper conversation, with any of her father's co-workers. Most of them just shunned her, or treated her coolly, referring to her as "kid" and "little girl". Melly, on the other hand, had spoken to her like a perfectly normal person. She showed real consideration for her. Sari could feel a less-than-pleasant knot forming in the pit of her stomach, recalling her prior treatment of the older girl.

However, she didn't have long to dwell on this, for Sparkplug seized advantage of Sari's distraction to snatch her key away from her again, and he took off once more in a flash.

"Oh, no!" Sari groaned, when she realized what had just happened. "_Sparkplug!_"


End file.
